Although to be fair, Alex did have a very successful publishing career.
Now, since the beginning and end of their characterization is often "boiling family pets in a fit of jealous rage," people tend to think BPD just encompasses any and all psychotic behavior -- or as some call it, "crazy bitch syndrome" (I'm imagining a waiting room questionnaire with, "Have you turned into a crazy bitch in the last 30 days?" as one of the checkboxes). It's actually a very specific set of behaviors, though. There's a long list of criteria that a diagnosis must meet, especially intense fear of abandonment (and drastic efforts to avoid it) and no strong sense of identity.
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Basically, there's a concern that everyone in our lives is "just going to the gas station for cigarettes."
That would explain why Jennifer Jason Leigh's Single White Female copied her roommate's haircut and tried to run off her boyfriend when they decided to move out (attacking people with stiletto heels, on the other hand, is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.) Basically, you feel hopeless and lost, you look to other people for a sense of belonging, and you get scared shitless and act out at the slightest indication that they might take their affection away. So there was a little more going on there behind all the bunny-boiling.
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